Early intervention is ‘critical,’ a minister has conceded as the Government comes under pressure to publish its delayed plan for implementing the recommendations of the latest children’s social care review.
Speaking in the House of Lords last Thursday, minister Baroness Barran said: ‘The shift in the balance from late-stage crisis intervention to preventative, earlier intervention makes moral, human and emotional sense, but it also makes economic sense.’
Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top, who chairs the Public Services Committee, which produced a report on vulnerable children earlier this year, had told the minister: ‘Local authorities, in too many cases, now have no money for early intervention and support.
'Local authorities say they would like to do preventative work but, actually, have money to do only the crisis work.
'Unless we have protected funding for early intervention we will fail family after family.’
Co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children, Baroness Tyler of Enfield, added: ‘Soaring inflation and energy prices are also putting huge pressure on local authority’s children’s services and we face the very real prospect of further cuts to essential services.’
Chair of the Constitution Committee, Baroness Drake, suggested ‘people are becoming sceptical and anxious about the quality of the Government’s response to this review’.
Labour council leader, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, said: ‘The Government needs to act now to avoid a catastrophic situation in children’s social care.’
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
